Scavenging
Scavenging is the most efficient way for survivors to obtain items. It is also the best method of acquiring Survival Points. All non-safehouse Locations can be scavenged. How To Scavenge On the Map screen you can find the option to scavenge by clicking on a location. After clicking the "scavenge" link you will be taken to the main scavenging screen. The squad you elected to scavenge with is moved inside the location and the squad's status is changed from "Outside" to "Scavenging". It is important to note that survivors are still in the zombie infested city and zombies (and subsequently injuries or even death) can still happen while scavenging. When in the menu, the squad's survivor names and various status bars, most importantly fatigue, will appear. Once a survivor's fatigue reaches 100% they will no longer be able to scavenge The rest of their squad may still scavange until they too are overfatigued. Make sure your survivors are well rested before sending them out to scavenge for more efficient scavenging. Scavenging Probability When scavenging, the probability of finding items is affected by various things. The main two are lootability nodes and difficulty nodes. As items are scavenged from a location it loses lootability nodes whereas difficulty stays fixed. Progressively, lootability nodes and difficulty nodes are affected by other, smaller, factors. The type of location, the amount of previous items looted in the specific spot, skills, and more, affect the number of both types of nodes. Lootability Little green nodes that help display how much loot is available at location and how easy it is to find that loot. Also known as LA nodes, they are in the shape of squares. A high number of lootability nodes are always good for scavenging chances. The more there are, the more likely your survivors are to find items. After 2 or 3 successful scavenges in the same location, one of it's lootability nodes will disappear. As of now, once a lootability node has been exhausted, it will not regenerate. So once a location has been emptied, it will stay that way. However, no location can be truly "exhausted", as there will always be at least one remaining lootability node, no matter how many items are taken. Of course, the chances with one LA node are very low, regardless of other factors. Difficulty Scavenging Skills There are 2 skills which once obtained directly improve the results of scavenging, Urban Forager and Lead Looter. Presumably these stack additively, meaning one character can have +8% scavenging solo, each additional max rank Lead Looter increases each member of the scavenging squad's scavenging chance by 3%. Other Skills Movement The Movement skills Adrenaline Rush and Team Coach extend the range away from your safe house at which you can safely scavenge and Bulk Up increases the amount of loot you can carry. Bulk Up can be especially important if your squad members are carrying weapons and ammo. Fatigue The fatigue skills Insomniac and Slave Driver help your survivors recover fatigue faster and thus allow more often scavenging trips. Fear, Death, and Combat These skills have little effect on scavenging directly, though they are very useful for extending the life of your survivors. Every survivor should try and carry a melee weapon because they never run out of ammo and putting some survivor points in that weapon is very prudent. Fear reduction during combat is nice for traveling to locations. Reducing a survivor's chance for death prolongs their life and allows them to go on more scavenging trips as well as reduces the danger of travel to remote scavenging locations.